


the importance of being flexible

by tkreyesevandiaz



Series: in anatomy we trust [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anatomy, Attempt at Humor, Christopher Diaz is a National Treasure, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Domestic Fluff, Established Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Family Fluff, Fluff, Inspired by Real Events, M/M, Online Classes, POV Alternating, The Author Projected So Fast, lockdown - Freeform, teaching assistant AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27615086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tkreyesevandiaz/pseuds/tkreyesevandiaz
Summary: The experience of teaching online teaches Buck and Eddie that they have to be flexible with the fluidity of time.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: in anatomy we trust [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018978
Comments: 23
Kudos: 102





	the importance of being flexible

**Author's Note:**

> Yes this is completely real. I have changed a few things, including timelines, to allow for artistic liberty, but for the most part, all of this has happened xD
> 
> This follows schools shifting online for the current pandemic, and how it affects these anatomy lab TAs. However, I have really only focused on when they're teaching, not much outside of that.
> 
> Thank you to Anam for being a sounding board for this fic.
> 
> Warnings: mild cadaver descriptions

The news came in right as they were in the middle of their third station of the day.

Eddie looked up to where one of his students glanced at her Apple watch before gasping loudly. “They’re cancelling school.”

He made a confused face, gaze drifting to where Buck, Hen and Chim had the same look of confusion creasing their brows. Suddenly, the room burst into loud chatter as the students began gossiping excitedly amongst themselves about an apparent new development, leaving the TAs standing stumped around the cadavers.

Eddie still had no idea what was going on but he bet it probably had something to do with Bobby coming out of his office — unusual when the TAs were conducting their stations.

“It seems like the news has already spread,” Bobby smiled, the room instantly quieting at his presence. “Yes, the school will be starting fully online classes effective tomorrow morning. I don’t know what that means for your lab just yet, but I will be sending you all an email this weekend outlining how the rest of the semester is going to look. For now, just pay attention to your TAs and hope for the best.”

Eddie exchanged a look with Buck. They’d been talking about the possibility of something like this for the past two weeks, and given that both of them were over-prepared for everything, they’d stocked their apartment with anything they’d need (in moderation, of course — their apartment wasn't big enough to hoard, and why would they in the first place).

But none of that prepared them for the possibility of having to take all their classes online with an eighteen-month-old at home. It was going to be difficult if Christopher wanted their attention all the time.

Eddie pushed it all to the back of his mind as he pulled back the semimembranosus to expose the remaining posterior thigh. “Okay so, one more time, biceps femoris…”

* * *

The minute class was over, Bobby let the students know that they may not get to see the cadavers again this semester, because he didn’t think they’d be back for in-person instruction any time soon — which meant that they weren’t on their exams. The prospect of having less to do for their exams sent the students into even more of an uproar.

“What does that mean for us?” Chim asked after everyone left, chewing aggressively on his gum. Eddie raised a brow as he doused his cadaver down with fluid. Bobby sighed from where he was wiping down a counter.

“It means...we’re going to have to learn how to teach them things online. I don’t know if it’s fair to ask TAs to do that.”

“You could,” Hen shrugged. “We could be the guinea pig class. Learn how to integrate the TAs into the curriculum.”

“Yeah, there are online anatomy models and videos we could use to teach them, too,” Buck added. “Even if they don’t get tested with them, it should still help them learn, right?”

“There are even cadaver videos on YouTube, it wouldn’t be much of a problem to find them. Do it over Zoom,” Eddie said, slinging the cover up. Buck came around to help him push the cart into the storage room. "Zoom's so much better than any of the other online portals."

“I’ll have to check with the department. They’ve been warning us about this for weeks, so I think I have a pretty good idea of what we’ll end up doing with this class. The quizzes are already online, and outside of that, they just need to take three more exams.” Bobby already looked tense, if the way he was scrubbing at an invisible spot was any indication.

The four of them exchanged a look, turning back to their professor as he began to speak. “I’ll email all of you TAs separately. There’s not much we can do right now. But make sure you guys keep yourselves safe out there. I have the sinking feeling it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Buck and Eddie worked in tandem to push the remaining carts into the storage room before pulling their gloves off and tossing them. Eddie managed to wash his hands first, thrusting a paper towel into his boyfriend’s hands before he could shake his hands and get water everywhere.

Buck simply winked, making Eddie roll his eyes.

“Christopher is going to love having you guys home all the time,” Hen commented as they began packing their backpacks.

“Oh he will, for sure,” Eddie laughed. “I’m just a little worried about  _ why  _ we’re going to be at home for the near future.”

“Honestly, this pandemic is shutting down pretty much every institution in the world. Bobby’s right — it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Buck said, picking up his bag. “I just hope we all stay safe through it.”

There was nothing else to say, so they called out a bye to Bobby before leaving. Hen and Chim split from them to go out the other door, while Buck and Eddie continued down the hall. 

“You know, we’re going to have to make sure we get Chris’ next appointment in before we can’t,” Buck brought up, shifting so their shoulders bumped every once in a while. Eddie nodded, pulling his phone out.

“Right there with you.” 

Dr. Mali, despite all the tests, was still not able to diagnose Chris with anything definitively but she had indicated that he probably had a movement disorder. The stiff muscles, the lack of muscle tone, the delayed crawling and the rigid way he reached for things were all glaring signs, but Dr. Mali wasn’t being able to place exactly what it was. She’d referred them to a pediatrician who specialized in motor disorders, and they’d been taking him to see that doctor.

Dr. O’Brien had advised them to get foot and leg braces made for Chris’ legs, so his feet didn’t turn in a way that would knock him off balance, so they’d done that. Chris had been fussy initially but once he got to decorate the braces on his own, he began warming up to it. Slowly, they could see the braces making it easier for Chris to move around, especially when they practiced walking both with and without it.

Still, it wasn’t a definitive diagnosis of why Chris’ mobility and development wasn’t in line with other toddlers his age. It had Buck and Eddie worried out of their minds, not being able to place what Christopher needed, what they could do to make it better. And on top of all that was their university shifting online, the prospect of teaching online, and the very near possibility of a lockdown to stop the spread of the virus — they couldn’t catch a break.

Eddie exhaled, already feeling a headache coming on. Buck looked just as deep in thought, so he slung an arm around his boyfriend’s waist as they reached Buck’s Jeep.

It was hard to find blessings right now, but Eddie was more than thankful that he at least had his family with him, safe and sound.

* * *

“Bobby just sent an email,” Eddie emerged from the bathroom, rubbing a towel through his hair as he scrolled through his phone. 

The chip Buck had been eating slipped out of his hand as he stared, only half-focusing on his boyfriend’s words. Eddie looked like a vision like this, damp skin that gleamed softly, drops of water trailing past the divots and grooves of the muscles Buck had just fitted his mouth to not even twelve hours ago, travelling to lose themselves in the towel around his waist. 

If he looked closely, he could spot a red mark that he’d left on Eddie. The sight dropped in his stomach like hot coals, spreading through his body to the tips of his fingers and toes. He wondered if Eddie would let him…

“Buck.” Eddie rudely interrupted his fantasy, smirking at him as he leaned against the doorway. The towel was wrapped low, in clear danger of slipping and Buck knew from experience it would take only one light touch for it to drop completely. “Did you hear a single word I said?”

“If you wanted me to listen, you shouldn’t have come outside looking like that. Christopher’s literally right here,” he grumbled, gesturing to where their son was busy playing with one of the toy sets Hen and Karen had gotten him. Recalling that Eddie said something about an email, he snatched his own phone from the bedside table, pulling up the app. “Oh, damn.”

“Yeah,” Eddie sighed, moving over to pull clothes out of the dresser. “One weekend to get it together and figure out how to conduct these stations over Zoom. Bobby says that we’re not going to have the rotating stations at all, so each TA only teaches it once.”

“The worst part is that we’re in the hardest unit. Teaching the muscles unit online is going to be hell if  _ we  _ can’t see the muscles, forget showing them to students who’ve never seen them.” Buck balanced his laptop on his knees, opening YouTube and typing in one of the things he was meant to teach during his next station. “But at least we’re not in danger of losing our voices every week.”

Eddie shrugged on a shirt and sweatpants, dropping down to sit on the floor next to Buck. Buck watched Chris push aside the toy to make his way over to his dad, grinning for the sound of Eddie’s chuckle. He carded a hand into his boyfriend’s wet hair, scrolling mindlessly through the website.

“Some of these views are okay to show them, but others have muscles that blend in way too much. Some of these cadavers have too much adipose on them, the students won’t be able to take note of what looks like what.” 

“They’re not being tested on the cadavers anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter. And they have seen all the muscles, but only once and I highly doubt anyone remembers them,” Eddie told him, Chris standing on his thighs and gripping Eddie’s fingers for balance. Buck listened to his boyfriend cooing at their kid as he scrolled, before finally tossing the whole laptop aside and hooking his chin over Eddie’s shoulder, laying flat on his stomach.

“Finally letting the whole responsible student thing go for at least tonight?” Eddie teased, nudging his temple into Buck’s. He snorted at the quip, rolling his eyes.

“It’s more...realizing there’s nothing we can do right now. Might as well spend some quality time with you two.”

Chris decided it was the best time to let go of Eddie and grasp at Buck’s nose instead.

“Christopher, we were having a moment,” Buck deadpanned, his voice coming out nasally. Eddie’s shoulders shook under his chin as he laughed.

“We are,” Chris agreed, nodding. His nonchalance only made Eddie laugh harder, which really was hurting the underside of his chin. Chris hadn’t quite begun to string along long sentences by himself yet, but whenever he did speak, a sense of pride swelled up in Buck’s chest.

“How about...we take hold of Dad’s nose instead of mine?” He tried coaxing Christopher to latch onto Eddie instead.

“How about you not throw me under the bus, and let’s go outside? Watch a movie?”

Christopher cheered happily, climbing off Eddie’s lap to walk out, grasping at whatever was in reach. He was already singing a song from  _ 101 Dalmatians  _ in his baby voice, filling in the gaps wherever he couldn’t remember the lyrics, and Buck resigned himself to another night of spotted puppies and Cruella De Vil.

Eddie turned his head to nuzzle his nose against the side of Buck’s face. “Have I told you I love you today?”

“You’re a sap,” Buck told him, kissing him properly. Eddie smiled against his mouth and nipped playfully at his bottom lip, prompting him to pull away and glare. “You’re really looking to start something you can’t finish. First walking out of the shower without clothes on, and then this.”

His boyfriend shrugged, completely unrepentant as he stood up. “Patience is a virtue.”

Buck, for the thousandth time today, rolled his eyes and straightened up to follow him out. Christopher had already planted himself in front of the TV, pointing towards the kitchen when Buck and Eddie emerged from the bedroom.

“I want popcorn.”

Buck threw himself down next to their kid, both of them beaming up at Eddie with innocent grins. “Yeah Eddie, we want popcorn.”

He pretended not to hear Eddie’s grumbling as Christopher tilted into him, laughing at the expression on his face. Buck crawled over to the TV to slide the DVD in place, crab-walking backwards to sit cross-legged next to Chris. 

There were a lot of things to look into still, but for the rest of the night, they put them on the backburner, listening to Christopher laugh at the Dalmatians rolling around in soot instead.

* * *

Zoom meetings with an 19-month-old were not it. 

At all.

Three weeks into this new routine, they’d managed to work out a new schedule. As thankful as they were to be safe, still have their jobs, and still being able to learn, adjusting to all of it was a bigger monster than anyone would’ve anticipated.

Both Buck and Eddie had managed to start working their respective jobs online, so they were still getting paid. Their class schedules were pretty much compatible, so one of them would attend class while the other entertained Christopher or did anything else.

When it came to anatomy lab class, though, they sat together in the living room. Buck took the love seat and Eddie stretched out on the long couch. There was nothing to do for the whole three hours. Bobby taught the lecture, but instead of the TAs taking over after the whole lecture, they taught in between it.

Eddie had never quite appreciated the mute button as much as he’d done in the last three weeks, because Christopher, bless him, had started testing out his longer sentences, and once, how loud he could scream.

It’d nearly given both him and Buck a heart attack, both of them abandoning their studying to find him completely unhurt, giggling wildly amidst a bunch of knocked-down Legos. Then, seeing how he'd attracted the attention he'd wanted, he built them up and did it again.

Last week had been an experience in teaching, because all they’d had to do was sit and watch 40 students take their exam to make sure no one was cheating. They’d all just sat at their screens for a whole hour, watching them as stoically as possible

Buck and Chim had both caught cheating students who were stupid enough to leave notebooks and cheat sheets out where four TAs were watching, and Bobby had removed them from the exam instantly, leaving that up to the plagiarism board.

This week, though, was a whole new unit — nervous and endocrine systems.

“Good afternoon, everybody, how’s it going?”

“Doing great, Professor, how about yourself?” Alec spoke up. There was always that one kid; Alec was one of the best students in this class, and Eddie wouldn't be surprised if Bobby asked him to apply for the TA position. He looked up to find Buck already grinning, pressing his own smile down. Chris was coloring in between them, humming under his breath.

“I’m doing good, too. TAs, what do we all have today?”

“I have cranial nerves and brachial plexus,” Chim said. Eddie could just about make out Maddie watering a plant behind him, and looked up at his boyfriend again to find him biting his cheek. That was the downside of keeping their cameras on — Eddie couldn’t tease him like he normally would.

“I’ve got the spinal cord, meninges and the nerves of the forearm and hand,” Hen said.

“I’ve got the lumbosacral plexus and the nerves of the thigh and leg,” Eddie piped up, pressing the spacebar to temporarily unmute himself.

“And I have a preview of the brain,” Buck added, his grin growing when Chim looked behind himself. 

“Okay, so Buck has a preview station, so we’ll do that at the end. Hen, spinal cord is also at the end, so your station will split today. I’m doing brachial plexus first, then lumbosacral plexus, and cranial nerves last.”

Assignments given, the TAs went on mute, turning their cameras off when Bobby began the lecture. Eddie set his laptop on the floor, reaching for his printed PowerPoint slides. 

“I don’t think Maddie knew that she was in sight, honestly,” Buck said, turning the volume of his laptop up so they could hear when Bobby was finished with each lecture section. 

“Aunt Maddie?” Chris asked, lighting up at the sound of her name. 

“No kiddo, just Chim, Hen and Bobby,” Buck replied, pulling out his European history textbook. Eddie winced just looking at the heavy book, and catching his expression, Buck stuck his tongue out. “It’s not that bad, Eddie.”

“Hey, I didn’t say anything.”

“It’s written all over your face.”

“Shut up,” he muttered, going over today’s information. He’d noted down timings of the various YouTube videos he’d pulled up, including some of the cadavers. He and Buck had practiced their respective stations with one another before the class, Christopher interjecting every once in a while to scribble a new shape on his paper. 

“Did you end up making a Kahoot or a Quizlet?” Buck asked.

“Kahoot. That music should wake them up,” he snorted. Three hours of nothing but listening to people talk was obviously difficult, and they were running out of ways to keep the students engaged enough to get through the class and actually learn something.

“I made a Quizlet today, since they haven’t learned the brain from Bobby at all. And they’re just super easy questions, nothing like the ones I usually ask.”

“I have to teach the brain next week, so I’m going to take those from you.”

“I might have your station next week,” Buck hummed. “I’m taking all your notes.”

In between all this, Christopher grew bored of his coloring book, and leveraged himself off the couch, walking off somewhere near the dining table area. Seeing that Chim had pulled up his 3D model of the brachial nerves, Eddie hopped off the couch to hoist Chris back in his arms, blowing a raspberry on his face.

“And where do you think you’re going, mister?”

“I want water,” Chris squirmed, nearly hitting him in the face as he laughed wildly. 

“How were you planning on getting it? You can’t reach that high.” Eddie set him down and reached for his cup, dumping it out and filling it with fresh water.

“I was going to yell,” he informed, taking the cup and walking back to where Buck was sitting. Eddie shook his head, following him back. He took note of Chris’ comfort level with the brace, something anxious settling down in his chest when he saw that they were working well.

“Dr. O’Brien was spot-on about the leg brace. He’s gotten pretty used to it,” he told Buck.

Buck looked over at their kid, while Eddie made note of the inevitable building blocks coming out again. “It’s all that practice paying off.”

Eddie could see his boyfriend about to say something before he thought better of it and pulled his phone out. A second later, Eddie’s phone vibrated.

**Buck:** He’s probably going to scream again, if he pretends to be Godzilla.

Eddie made a face and shrugged.

**Eddie:** We can’t really do anything about that, except keep ourselves muted.

**Buck:** We’ve been doing good on not letting the students know our private business, you know?

They really had been. They were careful to sit away from one another, and at the same vantage points every week. Chris had popped into one of Eddie’s meetings yesterday and had said hi to a coworker, but blissfully, he’d stayed pretty far away from their cameras when they were teaching like this.

And naturally, Eddie jinxed it.

He switched his camera on and started sharing his screen. “Hey guys, I’m going over the lumbosacral plexus today. So to begin…”

“Who you talking to?” Chris interrupted today, sidling up next to him to stare at the camera. 

“Uh sorry guys, just a minute.” Eddie went to say something, but before he could, he heard a rustling over the speakers.

“Hi Christopher!” Hen turned her camera on, prompting Chim to turn his on, both of them waving wildly. “Sorry y’all, I can’t resist this kid.”

“Me neither, hey buddy!” 

“Hen! And Chim-wey,” Chris said excitedly, leaning close to the screen. There were already awws ringing out from students, a lot of them chiming in to say hi as well.

Eddie was caught off-guard enough that he fumbled, looking wide-eyed at Buck who was red in the face from trying not to laugh out loud.

“Say bye to Hen and Chimney, buddy, Dad’s teaching, remember?” Eddie whispered quietly, trying to usher him near Buck.

“Oh, yeah,” Chris remembered, mouth forming an adorable ‘O’ shape. “Bye-bye!” he waved, teetering off to where Buck was standing with open arms. His boyfriend scooped their kid up along with his laptop and walked off to the bedroom, carefully avoiding being seen and leaving Eddie to smile sheepishly as Hen and Chim turned their cameras off again.

“Sorry guys. Now, back to the plexus. The lumbosacral plexus is made of, just like the name says, the lumbar and sacral plexuses. In total, it’s formed from the ventral rami of spinal nerves L1 to S4…”

He finished his station and turned on the Kahoot, names instantly popping up. Eddie could almost imagine the students perking up just at the chance to compete with one another.

They managed to fly through the questions without any additional mishaps. Annie ended up winning, the second-place winner off by a mere 30 points.

“Wonderful job, Annie, and great job on the station today, Eddie. And of course, an always-welcome surprise from Christopher.” He could hear Buck laughing in their room, which only made his face flush.

“Thanks, Bobby.” He said his goodbyes to the students before turning his video and sound off, letting off a quiet string of swear words under his breath. He was absolutely off his game today.

**Buck:** Your station was amazing, stop overthinking.

Eddie rolled his eyes and didn’t reply to his boyfriend’s text, moving the laptop away as Bobby dove into the cranial nerves. Opening up his own exam material for tomorrow, Eddie began studying, smiling when Christopher wandered out to sit next to him. 

Buck’s indignant shout from inside made them both burst out laughing.

“Did you just leave me on read?!” 

* * *

His boyfriend was not having a good unit.

The very next week presented another problem. Buck watched the creases on Eddie’s forehead form as Bobby asked who was supposed to teach the ventricles.

After radio silence from all of them, Bobby finally conceded, saying that Eddie could teach them with the internal structures of the brain. 

“Sounds good,” Eddie said into the speaker, before looking up at Buck with panic. 

He didn’t know who was actually supposed to teach them, but it wasn’t Eddie for sure. Someone must’ve missed the list of structures per station, but it wasn't quite fair of Bobby to assign it last minute either. His boyfriend was doing the stagnant equivalent of running around like a headless chicken now. 

“It is _not_ good. Eddie can’t teach them, he doesn’t know them!” he said, throwing his hands up in the air before scribbling furiously on the paper in front of him.

Buck cringed, waving him off. “Okay, firstly, stop referring to yourself in third person, it’s creepy. Secondly, you’ve done this before. It’s not different, you just need to review it.”

“Lit AF,” he mumbled under his breath. Buck hid a smile behind his hand at the despondent tone that Eddie  _ never  _ used.

“Lateral ventricles, interventricular foramen of Monroe, third ventricles, cerebral aqueduct of sylvius, fourth ventricle,” Buck added helpfully, listing the mnemonic out for him.

“There’s nothing for the Foramen of Magendie and foramina of Luschka, right?” Eddie asked distractedly, probably talking more to himself than to him. “Both of those things just lead into the subarachnoid space, for drainage of cerebrospinal fluid.”

Buck grinned, always proud of his boyfriend. “See? You already know it. You can do this.”

And sure enough, Eddie’s station went by without a hitch. His voice was smooth, calculated and not once did he sound unsure about anything, though Buck could read his nervous ticks like a book from his vantage point.

He exchanged a look with Christopher, who looked highly entertained at Eddie’s floundering. 

That amusement switched over to him when Buck asked the same question three times, only to get radio silence in response.

“Quiet class today, huh?” Bobby added when the silence stretched too thin.

“Seems like it.” Buck shook his head, completely annoyed but trying to keep his expression blank. Eddie could clearly see the ire on his face, because he got up to grab a water bottle, tossing it over to him. The gesture was sweet and took a little bit of the edge off, enough for him to say, “okay, the answer is L1 to S4. Next question, what does the superior gluteal nerve innervate?”

Buck tapped a pencil against the side of his laptop as he waited, glancing up to see Eddie mouthing the answer.

“Gluteus medius, gluteus minimus and tensor fasciae latae…” Alec fumbled through the pronunciation, calling it “la-tay” instead of “la-ta.”

“Correct! It’s not pronounced like the coffee, but you’re right! Superior gluteal nerve innervates three muscles, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus and tensor fasciae latae. Don't get confused with gluteus maximus; that's innervated by another nerve.” He continued like that for another three painful questions, before doing the virtual equivalent of hightailing it out of there — video off, mic off. “Rude.”

“Can you blame them? We get stir crazy sitting here,” Eddie replied. “We at least have Christopher to keep us busy during it.” He gestured towards where Chris was busy playing with his food, giving them a toothy smile when he noticed them looking.

Buck took a deep breath. “Okay but honestly, they’re  _ actually  _ taking the class. They’re going to get  _ graded  _ on this. And while they should pay attention to their professors anyway, they absolutely need to pay attention to  _ us _ because we, as students who don’t get paid for this, take precious time to attend  _ this _ , a class we’ve already taken, _in the middle of a pandemic,_ ” he ranted, settling back against the couch cushions with his arms crossed.

Eddie couldn’t say anything to that, because it was his turn to conduct a station but Buck stared at the mini video with his boyfriend’s face, watching him teach and feeling better already. 

The clock finally ticked over to 4:40pm, and Bobby began wrapping the session up. “Great job today, TAs. I don’t make a habit of comparing different sections, but this section is lucky to have the TAs they do. I hope that next class onwards, you all can appreciate that.”

Buck’s jaw dropped so fast. He immediately glanced up at Eddie, who was gaping similarly. Bobby  _ never  _ compared classes, and while this wasn’t the first time he’d done it during the virtual lab, it certainly was the first time he’d alluded to the students not respecting them.

"At your wit's end, Bobby?" Chim asked good-naturedly after the class left. Bobby rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Definitely. I just know people are sleeping at their desks right now. If I wasn't so against embarrassing students, I'd call them out by name to answer the questions." They all whistled under their breath, laughing at the uncharacteristic annoyance from the professor. Buck, already at his own wit's end, was probably at that point too. "Anyway, great job today, the stations were amazing, and Hen and Buck, those videos you both showed were great. I will see you here next week!"

"Bye Bobby!" they chorused before clicking out.

“Well, will you look at that!” Eddie whooped gleefully.

“Good. They deserved it,” Buck grumbled, shoving himself off the couch to join Eddie and Christopher. “What’s for dinner?”

“Pizza? It seems like a pizza day,” Eddie suggested after peering into their fridge.

“It absolutely is,” Buck agreed, already dialing the number to their favourite pizza place. “Mushroom and pineapple?”

“Sounds good to me. What exam do you have tomorrow?”

He groaned at the reminder, not in the mood to study anything. “Educational psychology.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow, sliding a few more crackers onto Chris’ place. “Don’t groan now, you’re the one who wanted to switch into secondary education.”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean I can’t be grumbly about it. You do it all the time with physics.” Buck plopped his chin in his head, staring up at him pleadingly.

His boyfriend shook his head, but bent down to kiss him anyway. Christopher shouted “ew” as loud as possible, cutting it short, but for the sound of Eddie’s laughter, Buck couldn’t bring himself to complain.

They spent the rest of the night burning their mouths on pizza, in the midst of cutting up and cooling small pieces for Christopher. Despite having to hit the books immediately after, most of his frustration had melted away. Buck smiled to himself from his spot in the bedroom at the sounds of Eddie and Christopher playing a toddler version of tag, one of the games that helped his mobility immensely.

After an hour, Eddie and Christopher came into the room to grill him on the material, Christopher seated in Buck’s lap while Eddie read different questions out. It was their preferred way of studying when they could — just going back and forth with the questions.

“You’re gonna pass this with flying colors,” Eddie grinned when Buck came back from settling Chris to sleep.

Buck rolled his eyes and slid the textbook off the bed, crawling in next to his boyfriend. Right now, he didn't care if he was going to pass, he just wanted to _sleep_. 

Eddie chuckled at his sleepy insistence, but wrapped his arms tight around Buck, whispering, "you're going to do amazing" as he drifted off.

(He was right)

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely love this class, but honestly, I'm being driven insane so I have to drive them insane, too.
> 
> LIT AF is a mnemonic to remember CSF flow in the brain. I promise Eddie's not just muttering nonsense.
> 
> Side note: AFOs (Ankle Foot Orthoses) are braces that are used to help people walk and stay balanced. It's like a boot of sorts that helps the wearer stay upright and move around more easily. In children, they're used to stop the bone from permanently ossifying into a bent or pronated shape that would sent them off kilter. That's the brace that Chris has here. Please note that they are used for many conditions, and he has not been diagnosed at all in this installment. Mild spastic diplegic CP can take a very long time to definitively diagnose (sometimes even up into preschool!). 
> 
> Kudos and Comments make my day, so thank you to everyone who leaves them! I love hearing what you guys think, and anyone who takes time out of their day to comment has my heart and soul ♥
> 
> You can come talk to me about anatomy on Tumblr at [zeethebooknerd](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/zeethebooknerd) or on Twitter at [tkreyesevandiaz](https://twitter.com/tkreyesevandiaz).


End file.
